MY HEART KNOWS
The goals for this series of blue dress paintings is transparency, exploring the color blue, interesting mark making, and as always, conveying some kind of emotion. Being able to check these off my list, plus allowing my heart to tell me when it’s complete, makes it easier for me to decide that it’s finished. “Untitled Blue Dress Painting #5”, 16”x 12”, pencil, acrylic and collage on wood. © 2020 David Limrite
“An artist in order to function fully must be both vulnerable and resilient”
Julie Cameron, The Artists Way
My Heart Knows
I have talked a lot about knowing when a painting is finished. Here are a few past blogs that you can check out if you missed them.
Knowing when a painting is finished is a very personal thing for each artist. There is no magic formula.
I tell people that a painting is finished when the artist says it’s finished.
I suggest that artists make a list of 3-5 goals that they would like to accomplish with their current painting. When you get to a point where you can check off all of the goals on the list, the painting is probably finished.
A painting is finished when it pleases you.
Over the years, I have come to rely on my intuition and my heart. My heart usually knows when a painting is finished.
My heart knows when it is time to get on with the next painting.
My heart knows when I have done the best that I can do for now.
My heart knows that if I continue working on this painting, I will probably overwork it.
Deep down, my heart knows.
And, I think that if you learn to listen to and trust your heart, or your intuition or your gut instincts, you will hear them tell you when your painting is finished.
When my heart speaks, I listen.
Best,
David